Amina's Song: Amina's Voice, Book 2

AMINA'S SONG begins in Lahore, Pakistan. Amina, her parents, and 16-year-old brother are visiting relatives, and the visit has been a mixture of fun and frustration for the about to be seventh-grader. She may be a Pakistani American girl on the outside, but she doesn't know how to speak Urdu or understand her relatives' sense of humor and feels a bit like an imposter around them. Amina has loved the weeks she's spent in Lahore and is eager to share the experience (and the hundreds of photos and dozens of videos she's taken) with her friends back home in Wisconsin. But even her very best friends, Soojin, Emily, and Rabiya, don't seem all that interested. When she announces her decision to chose Malala Yousafzai for her Living Wax Museum project, she finds some of her classmates now see Pakistan only as a dangerous place to be an outspoken girl. Confused and saddened by their reactions, Amina tries to sort out her feelings by writing song lyrics. Lyrics that remain only on paper until she meets a Nico, a new boy at school, who offers to make a recording of her song. Seventh grade for Amina is also about volunteering with a refugee resettlement project at her Islamic Center, serving as campaign manager of Soojin's run for class president, having ongoing conversations with her mother about what is or is not appropriate clothing, and telling everyone (again and again) that she and Nico are just friends.